Gov. Josh Shapiro sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) over the termination of a $13 million food assistance contract in the wake of looming food stamp cuts and mounting losses to charitable food programs.
USDA cancelled Pennsylvania’s three-year contract for the Local Food Purchasing Assistance (LFPA) program in March. It subsidized the cost for food banks to purchase produce from local farmers.
The suit, which includes Secretary Brooke Rollins, comes after an appeal attempt and failed meetings with USDA leadership, Shapiro announced during a press conference at the Share Food Program in Philadelphia.
“Pennsylvania farmers do the noble work of putting food on our tables – and for the last three years, they’ve been paid to provide fresh, local food to food banks across our Commonwealth as part of a successful federal initiative,” said Shapiro. “When the USDA abruptly terminated our agreement without cause, they ripped away a reliable source of income for 189 Pennsylvania farms — and cut off funding that would have helped provide over 4.4 million meals to families across the Commonwealth. That’s not just bad policy — it’s a broken promise. A deal is a deal, and I’ve taken legal action today to ensure the federal government honors its commitment to Pennsylvania.”
The 39-page lawsuit filed today, June 4, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, claims USDA and Rollins’ decision to terminate the state’s 2025 LFPA contract is “arbitrary and capricious and violates the regulations that the federal agency purported to follow.”
In an email the USDA said: “We do not comment on pending litigation. For further information, please contact the U.S. Department of Justice.”
House Republicans vote to cut SNAP by $300 billion
The Shapiro Administration is also speaking out on proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or food stamps.
SNAP helps people with lower incomes afford groceries. It’s vital for older adults and families with children in need.
The U.S. House passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” last month, which proposes to gut SNAP by roughly $300 billion, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Around $92 billion of those cuts come from proposed changes to work requirements for “able-bodied” adults. They're classified as being between ages 18 to 65 without children under six years old and must work 80 hours a month. Another $128 billion comes from shifting more program costs to the states, according to the CBO.
One in six Pennsylvanians rely on SNAP each month, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS).
The department reports that due to work requirements implemented in 2016, 55% of people who lost benefits had at least one chronic medical condition and that 25% of people had a nutrition-sensitive condition like diabetes.
The Shapiro Administration estimates that 140,000 Pennsylvanians would lose SNAP benefits due to stricter work reporting requirements.
Food insecurity rises in Pennsylvania, more than double the national average
Food insecurity in Pennsylvania increased by 48% since 2020, according to data from Feeding America.
That’s more than double the increase of the national average, which rose by 21% over the same period.
That data comes from Map the Meal Gap, which documents food insecurity across the U.S. Their new report, published last month, uses data from 2019 to 2023.
Around 1.7 million Pennsylvanians, including children, are food insecure. Cutting programs like SNAP puts the state’s entire food assistance system on the chopping block, said Ryan Prater, Director of Public Policy for Feeding Pennsylvania.
“Cutting SNAP does nothing to address hunger. It'll just force more people to turn to food banks when they can't make ends meet,” said Prater.
Pa. food banks in crisis if SNAP is cut
During a press event at the Westmoreland County Food Bank on Monday, DHS Secretary Val Arkoosh and Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said Congress’ proposed SNAP cuts would cost the state $1 billion annually.
“Should these proposals to change SNAP become law, vulnerable children, people with disabilities, older Pennsylvanians, and many others would see their access to food at risk and will further destabilize our agricultural economy and workforce during a tumultuous time,” said Arkoosh.
Prater argued SNAP cuts will cripple food banks. He said SNAP provides nine meals for every one meal provided by the charitable food system.
“When you're cutting SNAP benefits, you're making it harder for our neighbors, children, [and] seniors, who can't make ends meet at the end of the month,” said Prater.
Jennifer Warabak, the Weinberg Northeast Regional Food Bank and Commission of Economic Opportunity’s executive director, said in April she’s seen a growing need for food bank support over the last year.
“We're just in a position where we don't know that we'd be able to fully replace what that need is … To make up that difference, it puts a strain on the whole charitable food system itself,” Warabak said then.
Warabak said on Monday that SNAP cuts would put the food bank in serious financial trouble.
“Food banks across Pennsylvania, across the United States, have been experiencing a significant uptick in families that are seeking services, all while dealing with cuts … to services that the food bank provides … The situation will only be exacerbated [by SNAP cuts] … There's already not enough food available,” said Warabak.
She warned that cuts to SNAP and food purchasing assistance hurts Pennsylvania’s food system.
Weinberg is based in Jenkins Twp. and serves Luzerne, Lackawanna, Susquehanna and Wyoming counties.
Philadelphia and Fayette counties face the highest rates of food insecurity in the state, respectively. Luzerne County has the third-highest rate, with 15.5% of the county’s residents being food insecure, according to Feeding America. Lackawanna follows closely behind with 15.1% of residents being food insecure.
Warabak says the food bank can’t meet community needs.
“The resources coming into the food bank are clearly not enough to support the need that's out there. When you take an additional resource away, like SNAP benefits … that puts additional strain on the entire charitable food system: from the food bank, to the partners, to those families that need it the most,” said Warabak.
More sweeping food voucher cuts in the U.S.
SNAP isn’t the only food assistance program seeing a reduction.
Last week, the state Department of Agriculture announced it would reduce funding to the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and Senior Farmers Market Nutrition programs.
Those programs help seniors, women and children afford fresh produce from local farmers.
Pennsylvania received less than half the funding that Congress appropriated for the 2025 fiscal year, according to the agencies' statement.
“The federal government has given no explanation or reason for the delay in funding,” the statement said. “Cancellations and delays of this and other federal funding streams, along with drastically reduced staffing at the federal agencies who manage funding contracts have left the question of whether funds will eventually be received up in the air.”
Farmers could also see financial losses from the program’s disruption. The state reimburses Pennsylvania farmers when people use vouchers at farmers market stands.
Lenny Burger, whose family has run Luzerne County’s Burger’s Farm Market since 1889, said in an April interview that the farmer’s market program “cuts out the middleman” and puts “money [directly] in the farmer’s hand.”
Warabak warned that kids will suffer most from these cuts, especially now that school’s out for the summer.
“It's just compounding the situation … Kids don't have any control over things like that. They just know when they're hungry. And they just know that when they go home, there might not be food there,” said Warabak. “And now, with schools closing for the summer, you're also removing the … breakfast program, the lunch program … Where are those children going to get protein from, and milk from and fresh produce from?”
She added that if a family is struggling to afford food, they’re also going to be struggling to afford other needs, like childcare and healthcare costs.
Prater emphasized that the consequences of cuts to SNAP, Local Food Purchasing Assistance and farmers market programs will affect every community in America.
Hunger in America exacerbated
“These might be the people you see in the grocery store, but they just need that little bit of help at the end of the month, or they just need that little bit of assistance to be able to make sure that they keep their pantry at home stocked,” he said.
He called hunger the “silent epidemic.”
“I think people always think [hunger looks like] what you see on TV in Africa – swollen bellies – [but] that's not what hunger is in America,” said Prater. “It's parents skipping meals so their children can eat. It’s parents waiting for their kids to go to bed so they can eat whatever is left over at the end of the day. It's … the effects of malnutrition in rural, suburban and urban communities. So, that's what food insecurity is in America. And so, I think recognizing that is going to be the first step to kind of acknowledging and making those steps to [do] what we can [to fix it].
